Ken Saro-Wiwa, born on October 10, 1941, was a man of many parts. He was a minority rights and environmental activist. He was president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) from 1993 to 1995. He was an acclaimed writer with works of poetry, prose, drama and other genres. He was an astute businessman and a politician.
On 10 November 1995 Ken Saro-Wiwa and Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel and John Kpuine were brutally murdered by the Nigerian State following their being sentenced to death by a kangaroo tribunal at which Shell held a watching brief.
Ken Saro-Wiwa, born on October 10, 1941, was a man of many parts. He was a minority rights and environmental activist. He was president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) from 1993 to 1995. He was an acclaimed writer with works of poetry, prose, drama and other genres. He was an astute businessman and a politician.
Saro-Wiwa understood his task as taking the Ogoni people on a journey. In a letter written on 1 October 1994, he referred to having escaped an assassination plot:
“Not that death would have mattered to me. It would have carried more harm to those still alive. However, I do want to take the Ogoni people as far on the journey to re-vitalization as is possible—until other leaders are bred.”
His socio-ecological dream was captured under what he termed ERECTISM being the acronym for ethnic autonomy, Resource and environmental control. His vision has nothing to do with partisan politics. He fought for the dignity of his people and for the social, economic and environmental justice.
His writing was a tool to liberate his people.
The positions taken by Ken Saro-Wiwa with regard to the devastation of the Ogoni environment have all been validated, especially by the 2011 report of the Assessment of the Ogoni environment by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
He was more than just an Ogoni. He showed that we are all Ogoni.
His allocutus was referred to during the Conversation, especially the line that declares “We all stand before history.” Our actions and sanctions will invariably be judged at some points in time.
“I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The Company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it, for there is no “doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the Company has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the Company’s dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.
“On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and those who assist them. Any nation which can do to the weak and disadvantaged what the Nigerian nation has done to the Ogoni loses a claim to independence and to freedom from outside influence. I am not one of those who shy away from protesting injustice and oppression, arguing that they are expected in a military regime. The military do not act alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers, academics and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their pants of urine”
A selection of the published work of Ken Saro-Wiwa.
On a Darkling Plain: An Account of the Nigerian Civil War. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1989.
Nigeria: The Brink of Disaster. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1991.
Similia: Essays on Anomic Nigeria. London: Saros International, 1991.
Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1992.
The Ogoni Nation Today and Tomorrow. Second Edition. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1993.
“Closing Statement to the Military Appointed Tribunal.” ALA Bulletin. 21.4(1995): 3-4.
A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary. London: Penguin, 1995.
A Month and a Day and Letters. Foreward by Wole Soyinka. Oxford: Ayebia Clark Publishing Limited, 2005.
Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English. Port Harcourt: Saros International Publishers, 1985. Reprinted London: Longman, 1994.
A Forest of Flowers. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1986. Reprinted Harlow: Longman, 1995.
Basi and Company: A Modern African Folktale. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1987.
Prisoner of Jebs. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1988
Adaku and Other Stories. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1989.
The Singing Anthill: Ogoni Folktales. Port Harcourt: Saros International , 1990.
Pita Dumbrok’s Prison. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1991.
Lemona’s Tale. London: Penguin, 1996.
Basi and Company: Four Television Plays. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1987.
Four Farcical Plays. London: Saros International, 1989.
Songs in a Time of War. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1985.
Tambari. Lagos: Longman, 1973.
Tambari in Dukana. Lagos: Longman, 1979.
Mr. B. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1987.
Mr. B . Saros Junior Series 2. London and Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1989.
Mr. B goes to Lagos. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1989.
Mr. B goes to the Moon. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1989.
A Bride for Mr. B. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1983.
Mr. B is dead. London: Saros International, 1991.
Mr. B’s Mattress. London: Saros International, 1992.
Segi Finds the Radio Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1991.
A Shipload of Rice. London: Saros International, 1991.
The Transistor Radio. Port Harcourt: Saros International, 1989.
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